On Spirituality & Technology

Well, it's a bit overdue for a post on the last article that we read (Erik Davis - Techgnosis) but the brunt of the work for the year is done so I should give it a shot. All in all, the gist of the article talks about those who seek a "psychospiritual quest through the image of the machine". 1. The machine is how we recognize ourselves. 2. But, Gurdjieff says that we're so hypnotized by technologies that we don't realize our potential for realizing deeper levels of consciousness. It's interesting that the article would mention such claims, and I feel as though the former supports my essay's argument, but the latter actually goes against it.

The machine is definitely one way for us to recognize ourselves, with the advent of blogging, YouTube, and an influx of social networking websites that allow individuals to create online avatars and identities to their desire. Blogging creates a narrative for the individual, and as mentioned in class, it along with YouTube are extremely performative activities. By reflecting on these blogs and videos that we post online, one could say that we recognize ourselves just as how others would see us.

However, I must disagree with Gurdjieff's contention that we're hyponotized by technologies and thus oblivious to our potential for deeper consciousness -- as my essay argues or I guess implies, deeper levels of consciousness do not always have to involve notions religion or spirituality. As I mentioned during the essay presentation, I believe it is convenient for individuals to say an experience feels "spiritual", simply due to the transcendent or amazing feeling that they obtain from it. What about transhumanism, posthumanity? These concepts do not necessarily imply religiosity/spirituality.

"Technologies have their own increasingly alien agenda" -- is it technologies, or human beings, that have this alien agenda? This is a notion that's been brought up a couple times in class. It's definitely my belief that it's not what we use but how we use it that's the issue here.

Well, this is the last blog for now. Good class, interesting material. Thanks for visiting.